Fan is in my house – worked for 5 years, then quit. Actually the problem started with the light kit, which quit working. I found that if I wiggled the light kit, it would start working, indicating a loose connection in the fan itself. Removed light kit to get to the wiring “box” that is part of the fan. Was presented with 2 (now) non connected wires – red wire going to fan on/off/speed control – white wire to light kit. White wire is burned a bit on the stripped end as if it had been arcking. Now notice that fan only works at one speed, and fan on/off/speed control has 3 dead positions and one where fan spins. Can’t remember it it is a 3 speed fan, but I think so. Not sure if the fan worked correctly before, since we don’t use it that much, and rarely change speeds. There is a bunch of wires in there, and I find it all a bit confusing:
OK – so there are basically 3 devices in the fan connection box (just below the fan motor). Here are the wires:
1) Fan on/off/speed pull chain switch:
Red – the disconnected one
Yellow – goes up to the fan motor or up & out to fan mounting box in ceiling
Black – up to fan/out
2) fwd/rev slide switch – 2 position sw – 6 “back wired” terminals (see attached pic):
a) Red – up to fan/out
b) Blue – up to fan/out
c) no connection
d) White – up to fan/out
e – Brown – up to fan/out
f – no connection
3) Light kit:
Black – up & out
White – no connection
I tried hooking the white and red wires together – no workie. Touch non-connected white wire from light kit to frame of fan – light comes on. Must be neutral.
I think the problem is that the white and red wires vibrated loose from the back wired terminals of the slide switch. The back of the (black) slide switch is shown in pic fan_wiring_003.
The fan on/off/speed control pull chain switch is aqua color in the pics.
I tried hooking the light kit white wire to terminal “f” on the backwire slide swithc and the light worked ok, but the fan only worked on 1 speed only (high). I then hooked the red unconnected wire from the fan on/off/speed switch to term “c”. Pulled the speed control chain a couple of times, and it tripped the circuit breaker.
I then swapped the white and red wire at the slide switch. Red on “f”, white on “c”. Now, light kit works OK, fan works on 2 speeds (high and med), and fan speed pull chain has 2 dead (or off) positions. Maybe that is the correct wiring – and maybe there is another problem with the fan (low speed doesn’t work?).
A few pics are attached, but really you can’t see much. Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Thanks
Edited 9/13/2004 1:23 pm ET by DIRISHINME
Replies
I'm only going to step into this to suggest the slide switch is usually to change direction of the fan.
edit. Now that I opened the pics, I see you knew that. Best leave the connections on that one alone.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Edited 9/13/2004 12:27 pm ET by calvin
How are the connections made to the switch?. I could not tell from the picture. Solider? Faston's (flat tab on the switch and a slip on crimped female terminal)?
If the white wire connected to that one on the switch then there should be signs of where the wire broke/burned off.
You might also look take down the canapy and and check the wiring there. The white wire might be burned off up there or in the motor area. In any case the white should be the neutral as you have found.
You might do some googling and see if you can find a wiring diagram.
But here is a company that sells replacement switches (and the whole fans) look how the reversing switch looks.
http://www.regencyfan.com/accessories/product.asp?fam=112
Thanks Bill. When I said the slide forward/reverse switch was "back wired" what I meant was that there are terminals that you just push a wire into - very similar to a regular outlet backwire connections - I hate those outlet backwire connections and any electrician who uses them won't be hired by me...
In the attached pic, on the left side, you can see where I pushed the white and red wires into the back of the slide switch, which is a black box.Matt
When we first read your post and it said " the fan is ON the house" we laughed. Obviously the fan is IN the house. Have you got a inexpensive tester to identify the incoming HOT and the Neutral? The tester will eliminate a few guesses. Mainly this fan will have a White neutral , the Red and the black and the Blue are either hot or travellersAfter seeing the pics,have you tried connecting both the black and the red together?
I have a digital volt-ohm meter, however I'm not entirely sure how to test...
I took the canopy down. Here is what I found:
House wiring side fan wiring sideWhite <----------------------> WhiteBlack <----------------------> BlackRed <----------------------> Black w/ white stripe
After looking again at the light kit, the hot wire is the Black w/ white stripe.
Matt
Wiggle that white wire on the fan on the top and see where it goes.
If I am thing this through correctly it needs to go 3 places. The motor has 2 winding on it so that it can reverse. The white connects to;
One winding on the more
The reversing switch (and through it to the other) to the 2nd winding.
And to the neutral on the lights.
This might done with a juction (wire nuted) up in the motor someplace. And in that case you will see a burned off/broken wire at the wire nut (may not until you open it). Or it might be a crimped connection.
The reversing switch is a double pole, double throw switch with 6 connection. However 2 of the terminals are cross connected. The picture that I posted of a reversing switch does the cross connection externally. But they can be done internally and only 4 wires connect.
That is a what a 4 way light switch is. A double pole, double throw siwtch with internal cross connections.
Now if the wire wire is not jointed at another connection then it has to be jointed at that switch.
Now I can really see the details that closely, but those pressure contacts (slip in) SHOULD not have more than one wire in each position.
If it possible that those "missing" slots are tied internally to the white and used as a juntion point. Just some speculation.
I tried wiggling the white whire at the top of the fan/canopy but couldn't see a wire wiggle at the bottom (inside the fan wiring box I took the pics of). Matt